A sociolinguistic research of Kurmanji Kurdish accents (A case of Muş, Adıyaman and Şırnak)

In this thesis, the nominal morphology in Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) are analysed and studied in detail, in terms of linguistics and sociolinguistics. Three Northern Kurdish accents (south-eastern, northern, and south-western) were selected, with interviewees from Şırnak, Muş and Adıyaman provinces, respectively. The accents are compared with each other as well as with standard Northern Kurdish. The results for each selected accent are further analysed in terms of gender and age, and the different linguistic behaviours of these interviewees are analysed from a sociolinguistics perspective. Literature survey and fieldwork were chosen as the research methods. The nominal morphology in Northern Kurdish was thoroughly analysed with the literature survey. A assessment tool with 185 questions was developed by the author and conducted to interviewees divided between two genders (male and female) and three generations (old, middle-aged and young.) The study systematically explained the gender assignment system of Northern Kurdish, which has not been studied in detail before. In Muş and Adıyaman, both provinces where intense language contact occurred, binary gender agreement was found to be standardized under one agreement form at the case markers in Muş Province, but at the izafe marker in Adıyaman Province. In terms of ergative alignment system, the groups of interviewees from areas of language contact tended to use the double oblique and/or accusative alignment instead of ergative alignment system. In terms of gender and age of the interviewees, young interviewees and female interviewees tended to use new nominal morphological forms rather than old and male interviewees. This thesis finds that when Northern Kurdish accents are compared with each other and analysed among themselves, they generally show different characteristics originating from language contact and intralinguistic developments. Keywords: Northern Kurdish, Accent, Nominal Morphology, Ezafe, Gender, Case, Ergativity, Sociolinguistics.